Lukas most recent invention

Bob received delicious, large bouquets of cookies after his recent knee surgery. The cookies did not last long, the smell was deceptively delicious and sweet, every time one walked by the bouquet it smelled like freshly baked cookies.
Once the cookies were gone, the boys discovered fun, unusual containers that were destined for something creative, for a new purpose rather than the trashcan.
Lukas devised this new contraption that he proudly showed off in our hallway and also wrote about on his new personal blog. Any one that would like to see what Lukas is up to, check out his Central Thinking Unit blog at blogspot.com. It is a far more efficient way to understand what is going on.. his inventions are already a bit over his blonde Mamma's comprehension level....

Happy Birthday!

Bob and I are now only one year apart.. at least for a month or so... We celebrated his birthday over three days with dinners with friends, delicious pies and desserts and  a family steak night to cap it all off.
Lukas and Noah were so excited to discover that almost all of Dad's gifts were tools to be used in the garage.
Over the weekend, the boys voluntarily cleaned and organized some of the garage to accommodate all the new toys.

Happy Birthday to a very special man, the best husband and a great dad.

New Uniform

Lukas is adopting a new style, gone are the patched knee jeans, the hand me down t-shirts and the fleece jackets. Since his wardrobe consisted mostly of these items, we had to take a trip to the local thrift stores for some new wear - soft cashmere blazers, button down cotton shirts, and snazzy shoes.

His new style is not just for Sundays but for ordinary, regular Wednesdays doing school at the kitchen counter. I must admit he does look very dapper!
Noah is also happy as he is the lucky recipient of a bunch of great, cool t-shirts....for he has not changed his style!

Paris, here I come!

Dad being a US Navy Pilot, and an Uncle flying his own plane, the boys were destined for interests in aviation. Recently, Lukas loaded a new updated version of a flight simulator on to a lap top and since then I have not been able to get their attention, the headphones block off all sounds, or maybe they have developed highly selective hearing....

See Mamma, that is the Eiffel Tower!

Noah took off, after a quick tutorial given by Lukas, over one of his favorite cities: Paris. He flew around and around, circling the Eiffel Tower, and enjoying the view over the city. There are some distinct advantages to flight simulators: it is a whole lot cheaper for Noah to get to Paris again, and it is probably the one and only way that he will ever be able to circle the Eiffel Tower at close range in a plane... 

Sunny Day

After all the hard work on organizers, the boys were ready for a beach trip. Bob and I took a slow walk with our two dogs, and Duncan does qualify for Rock Star status - everyone stops and talks to him. It is good that Lucky is oblivious to all the attention.
Noah and Lukas opted for their favorite beach activity - digging. Once Lukas found an interesting rock he was off to talk to Dad, solving some sort of technology issue or maybe working on a solution for world peace while Noah continued his deep sand excavation.

Lukas is throwing his rock into the air!

We feel so fortunate to live just minutes away from the ocean, there is nothing more relaxing and soothing than sand between the feet, the sound of crashing waves and the sun shining in my face. We are truly blessed!

Builders

Our next door neighbors wanted a nice place to keep all their daughter's dress up clothes. Kristen surfed the web, found the 'perfect' solution, only it had to be built.. could not be purchased. So she turned to the handymen next door, the Severinghaus' trio.
A quick trip to Home Depot, a few hours in the garage on Saturday and some on Sunday and presto - there is the organizer unit. It does need to be painted but that was not part of the deal...

It is fun to see the boys use their gifting and skills and how they are being able to share this with others.

We have expanded!

This past weekend we expanded our household menagerie  temporarily while friends headed to the sun and warm beaches of Hawaii. Pepper the chinchilla and Duncan the Rock Star Bulldog, although dearly loved by their owners were not allowed to join them but had to take up temporary residence with us.

Bob is back on his feet!

Bob recovered quickly from his knee surgery! By Saturday he was ready to take on Meal duty and created a wonderful dinner for us from things he found in the freezer and pantry. He was not satisfied with only cooking the meal, he insisted on plating it to ensure the proper presentation, I wonder where he got that from?
And if you wonder, the food was delicious! Chicken tostada

Crystals

We have spent a lot of time lately making crystals using more or less common household items. We made sugar crystals that are still growing, borax crystals that sprung up in a jiffy, salt and vinegar that grew much slower, although not as slow as the alum ones, the Epsom salt crystals are still evaporating. It has been a fun project to see and explore and we now have quite the collection of crystals on display. They are fragile however, so maybe they will not last long enough to collect too much dust....

Valentine's Day

Not sure what was so important that it had to be researched that very moment....

We had a fun time celebrating Valentine's Day. An ordinary Tuesday turned into a feast and some fun times together.

Like Father Like Son

Since Bob is home recovering from knee surgery, he has been taking on some of the school responsibilities. I caught Noah and Bob one morning at the kitchen counter. I did not think this math wat that hard...

It is Friday, again!

Science Friday - and we had a full house! What a fun time making saturated liquids and watch crystals form, but even more fun to play with moon sand - a non Newtonian substance that is hard when hit, but slides through the hands like water when held.  We started off by exploring what happens to Ivory soap that is put in the microwave, a great success every time we do it. The microwave is pretty clean now.
It was a good balance of instant gratification - Laundry Soap crystals - and patience building as the children eagerly awaited the fully saturated solutions, tied their strings and added food coloring to what really just look liked muddied water. A few days later, Lukas and Noah discovered the beginning of crystal formations and are now excitedly waiting the day the sugar crystals are deemed ready to eat.

Mama is grateful for good weather and helpful friends to pull this messy Science Friday off without a hitch. 

For Sale

Our good, faithful, useful, gas friendly car is too small for us. It has served us well for many years, through adventures and daily life routine it has never failed us. It is now for sale, ready for a new owner.

Quiet, please!

This is what I woke up to one morning.... Is there anything sweeter than this?

Science Friday

Fridays are fun school days here at the SILL Academy. After Noah's violin lesson, we head home to do Science. Since our good friends are in town, the enrollment in Science Friday at SILL Academy has doubled - without any marketing efforts at all; a business wonder worthy of pondering someplace else on the web.
This Friday, the topics were mass, volume, and density. We had fun weighing, measuring and eating various materials as we concluded that mass and volume are not synonymous.  The first impression that a ton of cotton balls weighs less than a ton of steel was quickly debunked. An entire cup of popcorn barely register on the kitchen scale, whereas a cup of marbles have significant mass.
Having mastered these concepts, it was time for some density testing. Various liquids were poured into containers and the results were interesting not to mentioned fun to peer through! However interesting the liquids, no amount of enticement could get anyone to drink it, which was good as it contained soaps!

A lot of work...

After a long day of school on Wednesday, we headed to the beach with our friends for some exploring. The sun that had shone all day suddenly disappeared behind fog and the temperature dropped more than a few degrees, but it did not stop the exploration.
The boys had in mind to 'help' the rain water run off drain into the ocean, all that was in the way was just a small sand bank - about 20 feet wide and a scant 6 feet tall... no big deal.  First they all had to cross the river run off to the other side, and since the easy way is no challenge, they set out to build a bridge across. It was more like a balance beam than a bridge, but most of us got over without any major trouble, only Mamma slid, rolled and got dunked and therefore choose the easy but a bit longer route to the site in mind, with the skirt dripping and the shoes sloshing...

This is the sand bank they were attempting to cut

The immensity of the project did not seem to face the crew who quickly set off to dig with bare hands. Only the setting of the sun, and a cold wet Mamma stood in the way of completing the task. However, they had fun in the process, and that is all that counts.